From the first late night together
by StarsCity22
Summary: Hermione wakes up Harry late one night while they're both staying at the Burrow, but it's not only one late night which they share. Maybe Ron's dream of having a Romione life won't be so easy.
1. Chapter 1

The rain lashed against the windows, with the sound of the thunder echoing around joint by a flash of light, lighting up the pitch black room which was positioned at the very top of the Burrow. Hermione found it impossible to sleep through a thunder storm like this and nothing she could do would let her fall asleep. Apart from the storm, all she was able to hear was the quiet snoring sound which Ginny was making between irritably fidgeting in bed, but instead of disturbing Ginny at this early hour of the morning, Hermione grabbed the thick blanket off her bed and quietly crept down the uneven and wobbly stairs into the kitchen.

When in the cold kitchen, she made herself a sweet hot chocolate, and then curled up in the corner of one of the sofas. She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and cosily hid in that corner, drinking the hot chocolate, watching the rain fall down the windows. While peacefully sitting there watching the rain, Hermione started feeling more relaxed and eventually after a while of closing her eyes for a little too long to be classed as blinking, fell asleep on the sofa, dropping her half full cup of hot chocolate on her feet.  
As the hot liquid and the broken pieces touched her small feet, she let out a short but loud scream, quickly jumping up and desperately hoping that she hadn't woke anyone else in the house up. Luckily, the only other people in the Burrow were Harry, Ron and Ginny. Mr and Mrs Weasley had gone to stay over with Charlie in Romania for the summer. As Hermione was busy mopping up the hot chocolate and magically fixing her cup, someone's hand touched her shoulder. Hermione quickly spun around, a little too fast, making Harry need to react quickly to catch her in his arms to stop her from falling to the floor and possibly hurting herself even more.

Harry pulled her upright, holding her close. "Are you okay, Hermione? I heard you scream, what did you do?"

"Oh Harry, it's you," she whispered, relieved that it was only Harry that she woke up, but still apologetic for waking him up so early in the morning. "I'm sorry I woke you, I must have fell asleep and lost grip on my cup, I couldn't sleep..."

Harry looked down at Hermione, placing a kiss upon her forehead and hugged her tight, gently guiding her towards the other, and nto wet, sofa. "Come over and sit with me, Hermione. I'll stay with you until you fall asleep again, I never thought you were one to be so clumsy."

Hermione smiled, giggling quietly to herself at Harry's comment, sitting close and curling up resting her head against his chest, allowing him to easily wrap his arm around her. Soon after curling up comfy on the sofa in the warm and comforting arms of her close friend, she fell sound asleep, laying still with the only movement was her breathing. Harry carefully carried her all the way up to the top floor of the Burrow, quietly pushing the door open laying her on top of the bed sheets. As he turned to walk back to the room which he was sharing with Ron, he paused. With his hand on the door, he turned to look back at Hermione. Quietly snoring in her sleep until she rolled over, facing away from the door, her hand brushed against the rough texture of the wall causing her to murmur something so quietly that Harry wasn't exactly sure what she'd said, but before she was able to move again, Harry took one last look that night at the beautiful sleeping Hermione, shut the door behind him and continued on his way back to his room.

It took him longer than it should have to get back to Ron's room, and once tucked up in his now cold bed, he laid there, staring up at the dusty ceiling, following the small spider which was exploring around it and the tops of the walls. He couldn't sleep now, not with the heavenly picture of the sleeping Hermione in his head, that for some reason, he couldn't seem to shift. He stretched out on his stomach, with his arms and feet in each corner of the bed, thinking about how bad this was, the fact that all he was able to think of clearly was her. All he could think of was the girl his best friend had a major crush on. He juggled about with the idea of waking up Ron to tell him, but judging by the lack of sunlight outside, it was still too early to even be awake. He knew that at some point he'd need to tell Ron, he just couldn't think of the right time to bring up the fact that Hermione was the only thing on his mind.


	2. Chapter 2

It seemed like a whole life time before Harry managed to finally get back to sleep due to the fact of being awoken by that loud scream, and the heavy rain didn't seem to go anywhere either, from the sound of the rain smashing against the windows, it will continue to be there for the day.

Harry woke with a sudden jump after Ron slammed the bedroom shut, supposedly with the intention to make sure that nothing woke Harry up, obviously some of Ron's ideas were not the very best that anyone could think of. At least he tried showing he cared about his friends, even if the outcome wasn't what he really intended to happen. Harry was able to come to a firm conclusion that he really was a light sleeper, and maybe needed to invest in learning a spell to block out sound while he slept. That was one of the amazing things about being 17, he was now allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts! As well as blocking out unnecessary noise at night, the magic would become handy to make the Christmas dinner. It was the first Christmas holiday since first meeting each other that Hermione, Ron and Harry didn't have Molly cooking for them. Charlie was too ill to come back home for Christmas, so both Molly and Arthur agreed that taking a trip to Romania was in order, and everyone else agreed to it as well, all knowing how hard Arthur had been working in the Ministry, he really did deserve to have a break away from home, and try and have some time to relax and enjoy himself.

Still half asleep, Harry lent up on his arm, and reached over to the bedside table between both his and Ron's bed to get his famous black broken looking glasses. He pushed back the material covering the window, it really wasn't big enough to even be considered as a curtain, it only really covered the center of the slightly wonky window, peering out of it to see if any of the rain had let off, but still it was too heavy to be outside, looks like they were all stuck inside on Christmas day.

The Floo network was always guaranteed to be insanely busy during the Christmas holidays, especially Christmas day itself, so Fred and George was going to travel the Muggle way in a car, well, they call it the Muggle way, what they really meant was that they were making sure they were in procession of their father's flying car, and travel that way. Yet in this weather, both of them wouldn't even be able to make it as even in a flying car, the power to be able to see more than four feet in front of you would be one which they needed. Christmas in two days was going to be just the four of them, and Harry was still determined to reveal this realisation of something more between Hermione and himself than just two good friends.

Eventually he dragged himself out of bed, and to the chest of draws which were meant to be in the twin's bedroom, but considering it would only be the four of them in the house this holiday, Molly made sure that all the rooms had fresh new bedding, as well as space to put all of their belongings. He grabbed the first top and pair of jeans he could reach, but didn't even really know if it was even his draw he'd opened, Harry was really that tired. With his eyes half open, he managed to pull on his clothes and stumble down the stairs, the smell of toast guiding him towards the kitchen where the rest of them had already woken up and come downstairs. When Harry fully opened his eyes at last, he realised that only Ron and his sister Ginny were in the kitchen.

"Where's Hermione?" he questioned. Ron raised an eyebrow and pointed towards the living room. Harry really didn't take any notice of Ron's reaction, just smiled and shuffled on into the living room, obviously not awake enough to properly lift his feet to walk like a normal person at the age of 17 would. Reaching the door way of the living room, he could see Hermione, perfectly curled up on the sofa she had fallen asleep on last night.  
"Erm... Morning Hermione." Harry nervously choked out, glancing down at the floor just in front of where she was curled up.  
"Oh good morning, Harry, I didn't see you there." she innocently replied, getting up from her place, wrapping her arms around Harry, happily sharing a hug. As Hermione wrapped her arms around him, he did the same, pulling her in closer than what he normally would with her, or in fact anyone else. Without thinking, he gently lent his head down, and rested it on top of Hermione's. She wasn't really sure what was happening, or what she was meant to do. Being held so close wasn't something she was ever used to, but she couldn't have felt safer or more secure in Harry's warm arms. Leaning in closer, she closed her eyes, forgetting that she was actually in the middle of the Weasley's living room instead of curled up on the sofa falling asleep like she was last night.  
"Er...". Ron was standing just inside of the doorway, with his hands in his pockets, awkwardly looking out the window, he couldn't see anything as it was still dark and stormy, but it was better than watching his two closest friends having a moment in the middle of his living room. Harry quickly stood up straight, just letting go on Hermione and she wobbled as she was resting against him. She feel onto the little coffee table which was just to the side of her, luckily enough falling on top of it didn't cause it to break, it would have added to her embarrassment. She didn't even look up as she darted out of the room and up to the twin's room, considering she knew no one would be in there, leaving Harry and Ron in each other's company.  
"So..." Ron started off with, "you two seemed to be, um, well, you looked like you were having a bit of a moment." he eventually coughed out.  
"Haha, Ron, it was just a hug, it's cold in here and the weather isn't helping any of us feel warm either, I hug Hermione all the time, why start commenting on it now?". Towards the end of his sentence, he sounded more harsh and straight with his words, but wasn't really sure why this outburst of bluntness was suddenly started to appear in his words.  
"Well, I was kind of just standing there and neither of you were moving, and well the thing is mate..." he paused and tried to think of the right words, sighing before carrying on, "I... I'm in love. With Hermione. I don't want you touching her like that, never again. I... I've always felt this way, but I've never had the right words to say to her." Unlike Harry's words turning harsh, Ron's were turning aggressive, he was fed up of always being in competition with 'The Chosen one' in everything in his life. "Just, back off!"  
"Ron, no I'm not going to stop hugging her. Hermione is my friend, and our friendship, as that is all it is, has got nothing at all to do with you." Harry firmly replied.

With his fist clenched, Ron punched the door frame in frustration, and stormed off in the direction of the back door. Once again, he will be coming second best to the golden child Harry, and he was giving up before even starting. Without grabbing a umbrella or jacket, or even his wand, he kicked the door open and slammed it shut. Leaving Harry speechless in the spot that not 10 minutes ago he felt the happiest he had been in a long time. In a sort of daze, he caught the back of Ginny's jacket leaving the house, obviously running after Ron, but Harry couldn't find any words to say, he was so gob smacked that his best friend only just told him he was in love, with the girl he'd come to have a special connection with. Instead of going back to Ron's room, he went into Molly and Arthur's room, and collapsed in shock and confusion on top of the bed covers, eventually falling asleep once calming down from a confused state of mind.


	3. Chapter 3

Hermione sat up on what she guessed was actually George's bed, after hearing the door slam more than once, but as always, she continued to ignore her surroundings and made sure she finished the end of her chapter in the Muggle fairy tale book she got from her parents back when she was 10, or the end of the story in her current case considering Muggle stories are always so short. When she finally found a point where she could comfortably put down her book, she turned the bedroom light off with a flick of her wand, and made for the door. She didn't know where anyone was, or who was even in the house anymore since she heard the door slam twice. She decided to start with Ginny, she felt that at least Ginny would be able to take her mind off feeling so awkward in front of Ron. Ginny would be the only one to help her understand why she felt so uncomfortable when she found Ron to just be standing there, in the door way. She ran up the stairs to Ginny's room, only because she knew that there was a charm on the door to stop Ron entering, she only went into the twin's room because no one would expect her to be in there considering every time she had been in there she complained about the 'boyish' smell but to her advantage, she would be able to remain undetected from everyone if anyone were to bother to end up looking for her. When she got to the room, she saw that Ginny wasn't in there, at least it wasn't a wasted trip, as she picked up some more books and her pajamas, she felt like sleeping alone, as the only other room that was on the second floor was Molly and Arthur's room, she didn't feel like anybody would bother her on that floor.

She put the clothes and books she was carrying into the twin's room, and realised that the draws she was borrowing were still upstairs in Ginny's room, she wasn't really in the mood to move them down, even by using magic it would cause too much noise, and she was quite happy having some alone time. She was aware that there was three sets of draws in Molly and Arthur's room, one for each of them and another for the extra bedding, but since Molly had freshly changed all the beds throughout the house, she wouldn't of had enough time to clean it all and let it dry. That was one thing that Molly liked doing the Muggle way, and that was drying sheets and clothes the slow, Muggle way. Hermione left the door behind her open, heading towards the door opposite, and slowly trying to open it without making it creak like it normally would. Successfully being able to silently open the door, she shuffled just inside of the door, not too sure what was surrounding her as it seemed that Molly made sure they actually had a full curtain in her room. Magically adding light into the room, a gasp left her mouth as she come to find Harry, sprawled out on the bed. From the looks of things, the sudden light didn't wake up Harry up. She cast the spell as quietly as she could, and slowly and miraculously silently moved the draws into the other room.

Hermione couldn't hear anything apart for the rain, and somehow it seemed to be falling harder and faster, it was typical English weather though, and especially during the winter it was only to be expected. Obviously the two door slams were both Ron and Ginny leaving, was the conclusion that Hermione had come to. She was all alone, the only other one in the house was Harry. This was the perfect time to talk to him, no one would be able to disturb them. Hermione headed to the door, and knocked. She didn't understand why she did considering she didn't even close the door behind her to begin with, so why feel the need to be so polite? It's not as if he was awake anyway, and even so, he would have just been able to see her stood there.

Pulling herself together, she calmly walked over to the side of the bed that Harry was almost falling off of, with his head in the very corner of the mattress and one arm hanging over the edge, nearly touching the floor.  
"Harry," She quietly whispered, gently shaking his shoulder, "Harry, wake up."  
With a murmur, Harry began waking up, confused as to why Hermione would be doing this while it was still dark outside.  
"Er... Harry. What was all the noise about downstairs earlier? And where's Ginny, and Ron?" Even though her moment as she wanted to think of it was cut short since Ron walked in, she still cared about him, after all, nothing had changed during their break for Hogwarts, Harry only stayed up with her to keep her company, but she did sleep so easily when with him.  
He leaned up to talk to her properly, laying down didn't seem to be a good way to impress her, "Oh, Ron stormed outside, closely followed by Ginny. Look Hermione, I really need to tell you something, I won't be able to be truly happy unless I do." He said, with a growing smile on his face, finally being able to talk to Hermione alone, it would clear his head completely.  
"Truly happy? Harry, what are you talking about, and why did Ron storm outside? Did he ever take his jacket?!", and from the sounds of the words coming from her mouth, she was more concerned if he was wearing a jacket than anything else Harry had said, but after all, it was Hermione.

Just as Harry was about to open his mouth, the front door sounded to be kicked open, obviously Ron had come back, still with his anger. "HARRY!" He shouted out, Hermione was kind of confused why he was so angry, what had Harry done while she wasn't there, she wondered. Both Hermione and Harry heard Ron walking up the stairs, and he was walking normally, not stamping or stomping. He had checked his bedroom, you couldn't hear him moving around on the landing anymore, but as Hermione glanced over to Harry in confusion, you heard Ron's foot steps heading up to the next floor where they were.


	4. Chapter 4

"Harry James Potter, what is going on?" Hermione now demanded to know what was being kept from her, she felt like she had only left the living room an hour ago, but surely not this much could happen in an hour, was someone's anger really able to reach this kind of level in such a short time? What is worth this much aggression, this was not how Ron had been in the last few years she had known him.

Before she even gave him a chance to even open his mouth to try and reply to her question, she turned away with her back to him and she headed to the door, aiming to ask Ron directly what was wrong. Just as Hermione reached out her hand for the door handle, Ron barged into his parent's room as his level of aggression was increasing, knocking Hermione over in the process of his dramatic door opening, hoping to try and look 'cool' in front of the poor girl, who's nose was now pouring of blood from the door opening and hitting her straight on the nose.

"Hermione, are you okay?!" Harry called out to her as he jumped off of bed, making a tissue appear as he reached Hermione, carefully moving her hands away and covering nose with it. He reached his wand out of his back pocket, and with his movement to reach for it, Ginny came up the stairs. "Ron, don't go anywhere without it, you were going to get frostbite if you stayed out there any longer, and I for one, am not going to explain to mum what's going on here." she didn't stop or linger, she said her piece and continued onto the other set of stairs up to her bedroom.

"Stop there, Harry, I'll fix her nose, not you." he attempted to confidently put across, yet just sounded extremely false as each word left his lips, he tried adjusting his stance to help aid his confidence in the words, he was determined to help Hermione, and show off in front of her like he had always tried doing.  
"Ron, that's quite alright, I'll manage perfectly well on my own, I don't want to spend my Christmas in St Mungo's hospital wing as they try fixing your mistake of correcting my nose. Now for once Ronald Weasley, you're the one who needs to sort out their priorities, because it seems to be hurting me and making a fool of yourself are ones on top of that list. Goodnight." With that, leaving to go to bed and try and fix her nose properly, and in a way which would let her breathe while she sleeps, after all, she was the brightest witch of her age, why would she trust someone like Ronald Weasley with the responsibly of fixing anything. He's as bad as Seamus when magic is concerned, and in a mood like that, his magical ability wouldn't have suddenly increased to her satisfactory level.

After putting a locking spell on the door, Hermione got changed into her nightclothes, and fixed her nose, luckily there wasn't a lot of damage, so it looked as good as new in only a few seconds. Instead of getting into bed and trying to sleep like every other night, she's jumped up onto the bed, and pulled herself onto the window cill. Resting her back against the wall, she aimlessly stared out of the window, behaving in a very unhermione way. She wasn't reading a book, or writing more essays, for once in her life she was happy enough to do nothing. Just sit there and feel a slight cold winters breeze from the window.


End file.
